A sentencing campaigner cannot understand why any kind of parole is being considered for a man who bashed a sleeping boy to death in Napier in 1991.
Anthony Roma, who killed 11-year-old Simon Reaney, is to be granted day parole and home leave.
In December, the Parole Board decided to allow the
limited leave and said full parole could be considered next December after a release plan had been prepared.
Sensible Sentencing Trust national spokesman Garth McVicar said he could not understand why leave was being considered.
"Our initial reaction to a guy like Roma committing that sort of offence is that they've crossed the line and should never be considered for parole," he told the Sunday Star-Times.
Roma, 25 when convicted and sentenced to life for killing Simon, had also tried to kill Simon's 11-year-old brother Michael and father Stephen.
The jury that heard Roma's case had rejected an insanity plea by his defence, but he was committed as a psychiatric patient to Lake Alice Hospital, where he was found to suffer from schizophrenia.
This diagnosis is now in doubt and it is thought he may be suffering from depression instead.
The Reaney family were told of the leave in a letter from Parole Board chairman Justice Richard Heron, who said Roma had undergone psychiatric and psychological programmes and had been drug-free for five years.
Stephen Reaney said that even if Roma had been rehabilitated, "my view is he shouldn't be released at all. Once you commit a crime like that you forfeit the right to live in society."
Family and Friends of Murder Victims spokeswoman Debbie Francis said she supported the Reaney family very strongly. "It's this sort of thing we've been fighting for the last 10 years."
- NZPA
